"I know that it doesn't matter if the person you try to teach doesn't commit to anything, it just matters if you're doing your best at inviting them to come unto christ."

Monday 28 May 2012

Weekly Update 28 May 2012

Hi Everyone!

This week has been wonderful! It is so sunny here that missionaries are getting tans! Isn't that wonderful? Missionaries don't "tan" in the relaxing sense of the word but we are out all day it is just great! I personally have had a very fulfilling week. On Tuesday I went to Southport again for an exchange, I had one of the most special privileges and experiences I've had in my entire life.

My companion and I were doing service for a family in the Southport ward who had recently had a new born child, we were gardening and I love it, I've never done so much gardening in my life until my mission, my parents can testify of that. We did a wonderful job on the garden, I mean it's no garden of Eden but it is good. We sat down to have lunch with this family. We ate lunch and talked for a short while in the sun outside. We then were asked to give a priesthood blessing.

I'm no "expert" at giving priesthood blessings, I've probably given about the number of my age, which is 19... I still have to look at the white Missionary Handbook to clarify that there is order in the blessing I bestow. But, I always carry consecrated oil. The most special privilege holding part of this experience is we were blessing this baby, who had a few health challenges, the father of the Home wasn't able to bless her because he didn't have the Melchizedek priesthood, so it was expected for me and my companion to do so. This baby was the purest baby I had ever seen, all children are pure and are free from sin, but this baby had never even had a priesthood blessing before, she hadn't even been blessed and named in the Church, and she was about 6 weeks old. As I prayed for Heavenly Father to help guide me to do this I felt just such an enveloping power, it felt calming, it felt purifying it made me know that this child is without a doubt pure and in need of the priesthood blessings which I held. As I laid my fingers on this young child's head I knew that she would get better, I knew that God really does have power on earth to heal his children. I had never been more grateful to hold the priesthood as I was in that moment, in that moment it felt as if God himself was beside me assisting me in the special ordinance, it was as if he was whispering the words in my ear, like a parent would guide a child in prayer. It was fulfilling.

Now I have weakness more than perhaps most men, I am not the most patient person and un-intelligent drivers sure make me angry... but when I act for good; I act for God.

One of my favourite scriptures is Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
This promise holds true, it is the principle by which we are saved, Grace it is called, when we trust in God, we are open to the eternal, perfect, complete power of grace, and God will direct us in all that we do, as long as we are faithful to this promise.

The rest of the week followed in a similar fashion, it was Celestial.

Love,

Elder Sapaden

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